The Benefits of Living in California

My wife and I grew up in California. Born and raised. I have personally lived in Sacramento, San Jose and San Diego. From north to south California has more to offer than nearly any other state on it's own. While my wife and I had many reasons for leaving California, this Hub is going to be dedicated to the benefits and great things about living in California. As the the saying goes, Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

The first benefit of living in California, at least for me, is family and friends. When you've spent 34 years in the same state you gather a large group of family and friends around you and you rely on them for support and to be there for you. Even when living halfway across the state, you could be with your family in about 5-6 hours. Living in Pennsylvania now, driving is not a reliable option and flying is generally more expensive that we can afford to do often. We are thankful for Skype and the ability to see our family that way, but we miss California for our family and friends most.

Second on the list is the diversity of terrain in California. I don't know of any other state where you can go from the beach to the snow, to wetlands and desert all in a weekend trip. If you love surfing California is for you. If you love snow sports then you will find happiness in California. Camping and hiking? Of course, let's do it! Big cities, shopping and people? Heck yes, plenty of that. California has what you want and that is a huge benefit. Even if your life and interests change a different part of California will provide you with a new environment and experiences.

California's terrain is just as unique as it's population. While other states may excel in specific terrains and environments, California gives you a choice of just about everything.

Third on my list of benefits of living in California is large variety and affordability of beer. The picture above is my wife snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada's. The picture to the right is of me enjoying a Sierra Nevada beer. Don't get me wrong, it's not just California beer than I like. Every state I have visited seems to be a healthy and tasty beer scene, but on top of the massive variety that California gives you it also provide affordability.

In Pennsylvania, a six pack of a craft beer will set me back between $12 and $15. In California, that same six pack will only be $8 to $10. Big difference! I like beer a lot, but because of how expensive it is outside of California I find myself drinking less and less because I can't justify spending upwards of $7 more per six to try a new brew. I truly miss California for the beer.

Fourth, and a long the same lines, an overlooked benefit of being in California is the ability to buy all your beer, wine and alcohol in the same location as you buy your groceries. In Pennsylvania, you can't buy alcohol in grocery stores. There are bottle shops and beer distributors for beer, and spirit shows for wine and alcohol. Want to make a quick trip to the store to get all the fixings for a get together? Well, add 30 to 40 minutes to that trip because you need to go to three different locations to buy everything you want! I've heard that other states are even worse than Pennsylvania, before I move again I will make sure to do research on that beforehand.

The fifth benefit is huge, fruits and vegetables.

What type do you like? All of them. When do you want them? All the time. How much do you want to pay for them? Not much.

If your answers are the same as mine then California is the place for you. When you buy fruits and vegetables there is generally a sticker on them indicating where they came from. Do you know where fruit in Oregon comes from? California. Do you know where vegetables in Pennsylvania comes from? California. Do you know where fruit and vegetables come from in California? California ... and sometimes Mexico.

I was told prior to leaving California that produce would be of lesser quality and higher prices. It was true. What I was not told was that it would be of much lesser variety as well. California feeds the nation. The grow just about every fruit and vegetable you can imagine, and if you live in California it is affordable and fresh! Produce spends much less time in transportation so it last longer and costs less. If you have to ship a truckload of tomato's to Pennsylvania you have to recoup to transportation cost and the cost of losing a large amount of product.

When I was in Atlanta, GA I went to a burger joint after getting off the plane. I ordered a burger and asked if they could put avocado on it. I got a blank stare and the eventual answer, "We don't have avocado's." This would never happen in California. Avocado's for all!

My sixth benefit to living in California population diversity. People from all over the world move to California, and while this presents problems for some people, it does not to me. Living in San Jose, you learn about tons of different cultures and beliefs. While that in itself is a good thing, another thing you get with diverse populations is good food!

I love food of all types. Mexican food, Chinese food, Japanese food, Indian food, American food ... I love them all. In California, because of the diversity you get more authentic and delicious food. In Pennsylvania, I have eaten at a few Mexican food restaurants and it is just not the same as what you get in California. The ingredients are different, adapted for less intense palates. Sushi across the United States? Generally it's OK. Outside of California I will only go to Sushi restaurants that are well recommended and specialize in Sushi, in California , you can go just about everywhere. It's fresh and delicious. Granted, the sushi is no 100% authentic to what you would get in Japan, since we prefer sauce covered rolls in the United States, but the freshness and quality of presentation in California beats out any other state in these categories.

The seventh benefit of living in California would probably rank higher for most other people, and it is wine. I am more of a beer person, but even I can admit the the availability of quality wine is a great part of living in California. Not only is the wine great, but the destinations to go wine tasting are beautiful and fun to visit. Sonoma, Napa, even Apple Hill all provide a great weekend trip to go up and visit multiple wineries and see wonderful properties that have lovely layouts and lots and lots of wine.

While I never personally did a lot of wine tasting my parents and their friends will wine taste every other weekend. It is not just about going and drinking wine, it is a social event that gets you out in the community and enjoying yourself.

California has one of the best climates to grow grapes which makes it the perfect location to make wine. French wine eat your heart out, California is taking over!

My eighth and final benefit to living in California is sports. I am not talking about sports teams but sports on TV. This last weekend my wife and I woke up in Pennsylvania at around 9:30 AM on Sunday (we both have odd work/school schedules that requires us to be up late and sleep late in the mornings). I turned to my wife and said, "You know, if we just woke up in California at this time, we could turn on the TV and football would already be in the pregame." We both laughed, but it's true! Football doesn't start until 1:00 PM EST.

In addition, because we start so late it ends late too! The last game of the day in California would start around 5:30 or so ... or 8:30 PM EST! It's too much. While we do stay up late now, we don't really want to be watching TV that late. This also means that any of our teams (all from California) will be on later and makes it very difficult for us to watch ... sometimes impossible. What we learned when we got to Pennsylvania is that even if you are streaming sports, it will always play the teams based off of your location and local programming, which means that unless our teams are playing East Coast teams, there is almost zero chance to watch our favorite teams.

California, we miss our sports and sports teams, and loved you for playing them when we could watch them.

I could probably go on about the benefits of living in California, but the eight reasons listed about will serve as a good reminder of what we left behind.

Upcoming soon will be a new Hub about the benefits of NOT living in California. Sure, we loved California and miss many things about it, but in the end we moved for many reasons. I will not go into any of it now because I don't want to taint the California Loving of this Hub, but stay tuned to learn the reasons why California isn't always the best.

Please feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think!